Friday, August 10, 2012

Someone Stole My Child's Picture

It is 1:30 am. I am sitting at the computer and have to take a short break from what I’m doing because I have so many feelings running around inside of me right now that I just need to write something short about them.

Just as I got into bed earlier, I received an email from a kind man, alerting me of the fact that someone was using a picture of my son on their FB wall. I was skeptical about this, but checked it out anyway, just to be sure. I still can’t believe what I found. A man on FB- a random stranger- has posted a picture of my baby boy and is claiming that he ‘may be his’ own son.

I am shocked. I am hurt. I feel guilty and foolish and naive.

I am now in the process of eliminating every single mention of my children’s names as well as every picture of them on the Internet. I feel badly burned and will not let this happen again.

Make no mistake about it- when it comes to my children, I don’t play. I am not someone that should be underestimated. This person better fix things quickly or else there will be consequences.

Let this be a warning to all of you wonderful bloggers and FB enthusiasts- people cannot be trusted…

Update from 08/17/2012:

It has been one week and despite my numerous reports to Facebook, this strange man still has a picture of my son in one of his Facebook albums. Because I felt as though something about the whole story was just a little too fishy, I reported the incident to authorities. I don’t expect them to be able to do much and surely they have bigger fish to fry, but I felt that if something more were behind this than just the misuse of my son’s picture I would never forgive myself for not having alerted someone.

Some of you may think I’m overreacting- after all, in the high technology world we live in everyone can take pictures of my children and share them however they want all through the Internet. This incident just hit too close to home for me. I think I may post pictures of my children again some time in the future, but not until I have fully thought through all possible consequences. I am in no way suggesting any of you should stop posting pictures- I love seeing them! I just hope that we can all be aware of the possible dangers when opening our lives to the public eye.

You can't assume people will do the right thing. I won't post pictures of children as I have heard of this before, even using as a guise for "adoption". Folks, don't get too comfortable w/FB and believe all is sweet and nice!

This totally freaks me out...by the way I came over from wrinkled mommy when I saw the post title. I don't use my kids photos in my blog, nor do I use their names. There are some creepy pervs out there and I don't want my kids to end up on a milk carton. Be cautious and careful...it's not worth the risk.

I can understand what you felt, Vivien. It’s really hard to deal with everything, especially when our kids are involved. But then, I’m glad that someone informed you regarding that, and you are able to bring awareness to the other mothers like us. It can be a great help to protect our children’s identity.

I don't think you're overreacting at all. I've come to realize that I have a lot to learn about our new digital world, especially when it comes how it affects my children. I've shared a link to this post on my FB page: http://www.facebook.com/MYPhotoOnline in an attempt to share what I am learning with others. I'm so sorry you've had to go through this. THANK YOU for sharing your experiences, though.